Meeting documents
Cabinet
Wednesday, 7th June, 2006
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Bath & North East Somerset Council |
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MEETING: |
Council Executive |
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DATE: |
On 7 June 2006 |
PAPER NUMBER |
11 |
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TITLE: |
Bath & North East Somerset Local Plan Inspector's Report: Key Housing Issues |
EXECUTIVE FORWARD PLAN REFERENCE: |
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EWP |
01247 |
PS |
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WARD: |
All |
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List of attachments to this report: APPENDIX 1: District Housing Land Requirement to 2011 APPENDIX 2: Housing Contribution from Existing Allocated Sites APPENDIX 3: Consideration of Alternative Development Sites APPENDIX 4: Maps illustrating proposed development allocations |
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1 THE ISSUE
1.1 The Bath & North East Somerset Local Plan inquiry Inspector's report was published in mid-May 2006 and this report addresses key housing land issues arising from the Inspector's recommendations and sets out the timetable up to adoption.
2 RECOMMENDATION
2.1 In response to the inspector's recommendations on housing supply, the Council Executive is asked to agree that:
a. Policy HG.1 is modified to increase the housing provision
from 6200 dwellings to 6855 dwellings within the District by 2011
(Response 1in Appendix 1);
b. Policy GDS.1 is modified to amend the housing contribution for the Plan period from the following existing development sites as set out in Appendix 2 (Response 2):
Bath Western Riverside (site B1), MoD Foxhill (site B2), Lower Bristol Road (site B12), and Paulton Printing Factory (siteV3) but that the contribution from Radstock Railway Land (site NR2) remain unchanged pending the results of further work;
c. Policy GDS.1 is modified by the addition or amendment of the following development sites to contribute towards the housing land requirements for the Plan period (see Response 3 in Appendix 3):
In Bath: land rear of 89-123 Englishcombe Lane and land at Beechen Cliff School/Greenway Lane, Bath
In Keynsham: Land at South West Keynsham,
In Norton-Radstock: Welton Packaging Factory, land in the Coomb End area, land at Cautletts Close, St Peter's Factory/Jewsons,
In the villages: increase the housing contribution from the Paulton Printing Factory and add land at Wellow Lane, Peasedown St John
2.2 The Council Executive note the timetable for the stages to the adoption of the Local Plan set out in para 4.1 below.
3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
3.1 Budgetary provision has been made to cover the preparation of the Local Plan to adoption.
4 THE REPORT
Inspector's Report & next stages
4.1 The Local Plan Inquiry closed in 2005 and Inspector's report was received in mid-April 2006. The report was published in May 2006 in accordance with the regulations which require that it must be published within 8 weeks of receipt. The scheduled timetable for the stages to adoption are set out in the statutory work programme, the Local Development Scheme which has been agreed by the Government Office for the South West. Key stages are as follows;
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Respond to the inspector's report |
- June, July & September 2006 |
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Public consultation on modifications to the Local Plan |
- October/November 2006 |
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Council considers the public comments on the modifications |
- January 2007 |
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Adoption of the Local Plan |
- February 2007 |
4.2 The Council is therefore now required to respond to the inspector's report and modify the Local Plan where necessary. This report deals with key issues on housing land supply. Other issues will be brought to subsequent Council Executive meetings in July and any outstanding issues will need to be agreed by the September Council Executive meeting and then full Council in order to meet the above timetable. Future issues for consideration include retail, employment land, transport, the University of Bath, environment policies and affordable housing.
4.3 The Local Plan is now in the final stages of the preparation procedures and expeditious adoption of the Local Plan is considered essential to provide a coherent and up-to-date planning policy framework for the determination of planning applications and to avoid unwarranted development pressure arising from the Inspector's report and time-consuming and costly speculative planning applications and associated planning appeals.
Strategy for Responding to the Inspector's Report
4.4 The Inspector's Report supports many of the Council's policies and proposals in the Local Plan. However, if the Council chooses not accept any of the Inspector's recommendations it must provide clear and convincing reasons. Merely repeating the arguments made at the Local Plan Inquiry could attract a legal challenge which could lead to a delay in the adoption of the Local Plan. Some of the recommendations raise issues which require further work and can be addressed through the Local Development Framework in due course. Therefore the underlying approach is to agree with the Inspector's recommendations as far as possible to facilitate a speedy adoption of the Plan unless circumstances have changed since the Local Plan Inquiry.
The new planning system & the Local Plan
4.5 The opportunity is taken here to clarify the role of the Local Plan in relation to the recent reform of the planning system which introduced the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and a new suite of Development Plan documents such as a Core Strategy and other development plan documents.
4.6 The RSS will set out broad planning guidance up to the year 2026 and will need to be implemented through locally prepared Development Plan documents. The draft RSS was published for public consultation in May 2006 and is due to undergo an Examination in Public in 2007. The preparation of the new Core Strategy and other new Development Plan documents are dependent on resolution of issues in the RSS and will take up to 3 years to reach adoption. In the meantime the adoption of the Local Plan will provide a coherent and up-to-date planning policy framework for Development Control and a platform for important developments such as Bath Western Riverside (BWR). Its adoption will prevent a gap in policy coverage until the policy documents under the new planning regime gain status.
Housing land supply
4.7 The housing land supply issues addressed in this report are;
the overall housing requirement
housing contribution from existing allocated sites
consideration of alternative development sites
4.8 The Inspector's recommendations and the implications are set out in the Key Issues tables below and considered in more detail in the Appendices to this report.
KEY ISSUE 1 - HOUSING REQUIREMENT
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Inspector's Recommendations |
Proposed Council Response |
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The Inspector recommends that Local Plan Policy HG.1 should be increased from 6200 to 6855 dwellings between 1996 and 2011 (approx. 10% increase). The Inspector `s reasons include the need to take account of the national priority on the delivery of new homes and the need to avoid a severe under provision of housing in the short term and a substantial leap in the build rate post 2011. |
Build rate The annual dwelling build rate required to meet the existing housing requirement is around 410 dwellings a year. The actual build rate over the Plan period dropped to around 380 by 2005. The Inspector's increased housing figure requires the average build rate to rise to 564 dwellings a year during the remainder of the Plan period. For information this compares with an average annual rate of 770 required by the Regional Spatial Strategy - double the current rate. Implications The main implication is that more land will need to be allocated for development. Building rates are influenced by fluctuations in the economy and property market but also significantly by the supply of deliverable sites. By allocating deliverable sites (see key issues 2 and 3 below) through modifications to the Local Plan it is anticipated that house building rates can progressively increase to ensure that the requirement of 6,855 by 2011 could be met. Failure to increase housing supply would exacerbate existing housing supply and affordability problems. If the Local Plan is not modified to increase the housing supply, the Council could be directed to do so by Government or could be subject to legal challenge. Recommendation Agree with Inspector's recommendation. |
KEY ISSUE 2 - HOUSING PROVISION FROM EXISTING ALLOCATIONS
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Inspector's Recommendations |
Proposed Council Response |
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Inspector concludes that some of the allocated sites will not deliver the anticipated housing within the Plan period (2011). Of particular significance are; Bath Western Riverside: 450 not 800 Lower Bristol Road: 50 not 75 MoD Foxhill: 0 not 200 Radstock Railway Land: 50 not 100 However, she accepts that other site may have greater potential than allowed for, particularly Paulton Printing Factory. As a result the Inspector concludes that there will be a shortfall in the District's housing supply to 2011 of 1190 dwellings. |
These sites have been reassessed & if any of the Inspector's recommendations are not accepted, the Council must give robust and convincing reasons such as changed circumstances since the Local Plan Inquiry. The conclusions for the delivery in the Plan period are: Bath Western Riverside Inspector's cautions should be heeded but allowance should also be made for the potential for more rapid progress. Therefore allow for a range of 450 to 600 dwellings. This range in no way imposes a limit on the progression of the scheme. Lower Bristol Road & MoD Foxhill sites Accept Inspector's recommendations Radstock Railway Land At the Inquiry the Council argued that upwards of 100 dwellings could be developed in the Plan period provided the site requirements were met. The Inspector urges a cautious approach to safeguard ecological interests. Considerable further work is being undertaken as part of the Masterplanning and pending the results, it is recommended that the Local Plan remain unchanged which indicates a capacity of around 100 dwellings existing in the Plan period. Paulton Printing Factory Agree greater capacity; see also Key Issue 3 below. Recommendation Accept the Inspector's recommendations but allow for the potential for a more optimistic delivery rate at BWR and note further work underway in relation to Radstock Railway Land. The outstanding shortfall is between 940 to 1140 dwellings. |
KEY ISSUE 3 - CHANGES TO SITE ALLOCATIONS
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Inspector's Recommendations |
Proposed Council Response |
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To meet the housing shortfall, additional sites are needed. The Inspector recommends candidate sites (see Appendix 3) stressing that those selected need to be suitable, deliverable and follow the search sequence of first Bath, then Keynsham, then Norton-Radstock & finally the villages. |
An assessment of the options concludes that the sites listed below are needed to meet the housing shortfall. A site selection strategy has been adopted which either makes more intensive use of existing allocations, re-allocates sites which were either previously allocated or uses sites which accord with the strategy of regeneration via mixed-use redevelopment on brownfield sites as far as possible. Greenfield sites are only allocated where necessary. Bath Land r/o 89-123 Englishcombe Lane: 45 dwgs Land at Greenway Lane, Beechen Cliff School: 18 dwgs Keynsham Land at SW Keynsham: 500-700 dwgs Norton Radstock Welton Packaging: 100 dwgs St Peters Factory/Jewsons: 107 dwgs Land at Coomb End, Radstock: 50 dwgs Land at Cautletts Close (90 dwellings) Villages Paulton Printing Factory: around 200 dwgs on rest of site. Land at Wellow Lane, Peasedown St John |
5 RISK MANAGEMENT
5.1 A risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations has been undertaken, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.
5.2 As stated in para 4.3 above, expeditious adoption of the Local Plan is considered essential to provide a coherent and up-to-date planning policy framework in order to implement strategic and corporate planning objectives. There is a public expectation that the Plan will be adopted, considering the substantial resources already invested in it The implications of not adopting the Local Plan are likely to result in;
severe difficulties for development control because there would be no coherent, up-to-date district-wide planning policy framework against which to determine planning applications and would have to deal with speculative costly and time-consuming planning applications and appeals
severe difficulties for the implementation of major developments including delay to the Bath Western Riverside Project and undermine the Council's ability to resist piecemeal development of parts of the BWR site.
a gap in coverage of development plan policies pending adoption of the new suite of planning documents under the Local Development Framework because there is at present time no district-wide development plan.
6 RATIONALE
6.1 To ensure swift adoption of the Local Plan and that any modifications to the Local Plan are made in line with the Local Plan strategy and the Council's corporate objectives.
7 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED
7.1 The inspector recommended options in meeting the housing land requirement. These are set out in the appendices to this report along with the reasons for the preferred option.
8 CONSULTATION
8.1 The issues in this report have been discussed with the Executive councillor and with the Council Executive Members
8.2 The responses to the Inspector's recommendations and any modifications arising will be subject to public consultation as prescribed in the relevant regulations.
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Contact person |
Simon de Beer - 01225 477616 |
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Background papers |
Bath & North East Somerset Local
Plan Inspector's Report 2006 |